Shadow Proof

AnnouncementsLatest NewsThe Dissenter After eight years, we have decided that it is time to shut down Shadowproof, but that does not mean that the independent journalism that we fostered is coming entirely to an end. In a span of time defined by numerous global crises and an ever-shifting online media landscape, readers like you helped us develop an oasis for incisive reporting on prisons, policing, whistleblowers, and crackdowns on political activists.

Featured ReportingLatest NewsMarvel Cooke FellowshipPrison Protest This article was funded by the Marvel Cooke Fellowship. Read more about this reporting project and make a contribution to fund our fellowship budget. I board the transport in an orange jumpsuit, shackled and cuffed at the waist, one of many prisoners in exodus from the Washington State Reformatory. The rattling of our chains fills the cabin as we find places to sit.

Featured ReportingLatest NewsMarvel Cooke FellowshipPrison Protest This article was funded by the Marvel Cooke Fellowship. Read more about this reporting project and make a contribution to fund our fellowship budget. Those who are brave enough to practice journalism in prison often encounter the most aggressive intimidation and retaliation from prison administrators and guards. Closely monitored telephone calls and messages. “Lost” and delayed mail. Random transfers. Contaminated food.

AnnouncementsDissenter FeaturedLatest NewsThe Dissenter WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his legal team believe that Assange may be extradited to the United States before the end of summer. It is unfortunately time for us to prepare for court proceedings, and so far, you came through for us marvelously. I am so grateful to our readers for exceeding our goal of raising $1,000 to support my coverage of Assange’s U.S. court proceedings. You raised over $3,000.

There I was sitting in the movie theatre trying to watch “Sound of Freedom,” when I heard the sound of an air horn. Bwaam! Bom-bom-bom-bom-bwaam! Jim Caviezel, who plays Tim Ballard, the agent who saves the children, had just appeared. I could not believe what I heard. But there it was again. Bwaam! Bom-bom-bom-bom-bwaam! Bwaam! Certainly, someone in the theatre would stop this sound. Others would complain and tell the staff to figure out who or what was making that noise.

Featured ReportingLatest NewsMarvel Cooke FellowshipPrison Protest This article was funded by the Marvel Cooke Fellowship. Read more about this reporting project and make a contribution to fund our fellowship budget. Exhausted, I grudgingly open my eyes and pat my blanket as I awkwardly search for my phone. I open Twitter to see that my account has blown up. As I search my DMs to read the comments of support, a warm calming feeling covers me.

Dissenter FeaturedLatest NewsThe Dissenter Originally published at Ongoing History of Protest Music John Wayne slaughtered our Indian brothers Burned their villages and raped their mothers Now he has given them a white man’s lord ‘Live by this, or die by my sword!’ These are lyrics from “John Wayne Was A Nazi” a scathing tune by hardcore pioneers MDC. The single was originally released a year after Wayne’s death in 1980 when they were known as The Stains.

Featured ReportingLatest NewsPrison Protest When the state House and Senate passed a five-year moratorium on building any new prisons and jails last year, those who had spent years fighting against the construction of a new women’s prison thought that the Legislature was finally listening. But, in one of his last moves in office last August, former Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the bill. Now, under Gov. Maura Healey, the new women’s prison is back on the table.

Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower and peace activist who released the Pentagon Papers that exposed the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 92. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on February 17, and doctors gave him three to six months to live. He was a subscriber to Shadowproof’s Dissenter Newsletter. So it is only appropriate that I share some of my personal memories in honor of who he was and because he meant so much to so many people.

Featured ReportingLatest NewsMarvel Cooke FellowshipPrison Protest This article was funded by the Marvel Cooke Fellowship. Read more about this reporting project and make a contribution to fund our fellowship budget. Inside Georgia’s prisons, a prisoner-led organization called Georgia Prisoners Speak (GPS) is fighting to overcome communications barriers to the outside world and engage in abolitionist political education.